I have had some bad experiences before in temples particularly in US as Indian priests there are more of temple managers than being vedic scholar or devoted priests. They do manage to learn few verses of puranas or gita and utter the same over and over again. What irks me so much is their greed for small donations of funds by devotees called as Dakshina. Though dakshina is supposed to be voluntary contribution... bogus priests literally ask devotees to contribute funds and treat devotees differently depending upon their value of contributions. So I seldom visit temples in Austin.
Quite recently a friend of mine wanted to visit an ashram in outskirts of Austin called Barshana Dham and i had to accompany him. I decided to not take part in prayers or rituals and instead sit back and relax. I sat in the last row and started observing the people around.
A Caucasian (white American) lady who looked to be in her late 30's was playing an instrument (Veena), she was attired like a priest, a white sari...long hair and bindi on her forehead, chanting hymns from the bhagwad gita texts like a devout Hindu. A little later I realized that, I'm seeing not just any devotee but a supreme artist in action. She was reciting songs one after the other with her eyes closed and playing veena parallel. Her pronunciation of the Sanskrit words, control over language and ease with which she sang was quite palpable. It was like she was in a flow. I was caught by surprise as I saw for the first time an American women leading the prayers in a temple which is largely visited by Indians.
Everyone else in the hall were found sitting on the floor with their eyes closed....clapping their hands...in to sort of deep listening mode..and forgetting their very existence in the hall. I observed her carefully and was stunned by her bhakti/devotion towards the god. Her body movements, her voice, sound of her Veena elevated the realm of a prayer to a sublime form. Every wave of her sound was suffused with the unique aesthetics, gentlest touch of the strings of veena which reverberated in the hall giving an experience of floating on the water or flying in the air. what is the verb that comes closest to describing such moments? Self-engrossed? Self-immersed? I think the two Sanskrit words, tanmay and talleen, best captures the experience. I felt, that lady was in a secret conversation with her god, and when she sang, she makes me feel that she has become dissolved in the sound of her own creation, as if the sound itself is coming from a distant, mysterious, non-material source. I was very elated to see that lady on that day, For the first time in my life, I came across a true devotee who was confident, completely at ease, who sang with conviction and character. I think all Indian priests should learn a lesson from that American lady's devotion who serves as best example of how to practice bhakti and what it means to be a real devotee of god.
Bhakti is the faith, love, trust, loyalty, devotion, attachment towards god or teacher, parent or some loved one or it could also be our daily work. Hindu scriptures bhakti or path of devotion as one of surest and easiest ways to god. Bhakti is like highest love, that is like Amrit or Holy grail, finding which a person becomes perfect, becomes immortal, becomes satisfied, finding which he desires nothing more, neither grieves, nor hates, neither engages nor gets enthusiastic about anything else. Yes it can be attained through our daily work or relationships also. It is one of my own principles of attaining bhakti through karma yoga.
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